9/02/2009

DBS netted a Foreign Talent again

Champagne popped yesterday and another round of celebration as DBS announced that it had successfully searched and found another foreign talent to helm the bank. The appointment of Piyush Gupta, a PR, was welcomed as another great achievement and would do DBS a lot of good in its banking business though it also announced that nothing would change and business as usual. There were happy faces everywhere. The appointment of another PR in the number one govt bank is, sad to say, another confirmation of our failure in nurturing and developing our local talents for the big league. And we have been doing this over and over again for the last few decades and still repeating the same formula without any wiser. Our local talents that were sent overseas to the best Ivy League universities in the US and Europe are still unfit to be the CEO of a local bank and many of our big organisations. And they will never be, if things are not changed. Our formula is simple. Send our best to foreign universities with a long string attached. On completion of their 4 years of studies, pull the string and haul them back to our little ponds to be fed and grow fat, like the kois. Big and beautiful to look at, full of fat. And when we need marlins, sharks and whales to swim in the oceans, expectedly none will be fit for the job. So we will forever be dependant on foreign talents to fill jobs that require exposure and experience in the international arena. Our mandarins are experienced only to swim in the little fish ponds. Maybe the 4 years of exposure to the local lifestyle will equip them with enough knowledge to buy kindergartens, theatres, hotels and landed properties. Maybe football clubs with be next. In contrast, India and some other countries allowed their best to stay on in America and Europe, join the big league MNCs, and grow with them. They were sent to swim the seven seas, brave the storms, and survived, fit and all muscles, to take on the world. It is thus not unexpected for our local organisations with big dreams of going international to be dependant on foreign talents, and forever, if our policy on nurturing and developing our own talents is not changed. We will continue to breed ponds of beautiful and fat kois, but no marlins, no sharks and no whales.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Why did I get this feeling that something is not right?"

MM says local "high-falutin"

Wally Buffet said...

It's not that there are no local talents but being big fat kois, we don't want to sit on red hot seats and be eaten by the barracudas.

Also, we Singaporeans are very employment savvy. Good income but less stressful job good. Great income but more stressful job not good.

What's the point of earning big bucks if it's probable that you may end up in the psychiatric or oncology wards?

The kois. Reminds me to add this item to the decoration list.

Anonymous said...

Keeping the Kois fat and not eating them will be a great waste of time and money.

They(kois) give You the pleasure of wasting your time and effort.

The Pleasure that is strictly for the sensual beings.

Okay, i am not saying our (local) talents are kois.

patriot

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

the Breeding Kois Strategy must change to one of turning them into big fish in the ocean. otherwise everytime the specs for a CEO is presented, world wide experience and exposure, working in large MNC etc, our kois will never even meet the minimum criteria and will be ruled out immediately.

Anonymous said...

You breed 'kwai's', you get 'kwai chai' loh.

The Government wants people who are yes-men, not those who always have a bone to pick with them.

So, no surprise lah. Foreign talents it is for running the big shows. Local talents for cleaning tables, toilets and the odd jobs of needing only 'yes sir' and 'no sir'.

And they live happily ever after.

Anonymous said...

Foreign made goods are always considered better than local goods. This is the way most Singaporean think.